Amazon offers to help Biden with vaccine rollout

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has offered to use its operational muscle to help the Biden administration deliver the COVID-19 vaccine to more Americans, according to a letter addressed to President Biden, seen by Reuters.

In the letter, Dave Clark, the head of Amazon's worldwide consumer better, said, "We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration's vaccination efforts."

The offer comes as Biden tries to make good on a pledge to delver 100 million doses of the vaccine in his first 100 days of office.

The effort has already been stymied as states like New York recently warn they already face the risk of running out of the vaccine.

At the same time, the outbreak shows no sign of slowing down.

COVID-19 has infected more than 24 million people in the U.S., with the death toll exceeding 400,000 since the pandemic started a year ago.

Amazon has had troubles of its own during the pandemic.

With more than 800,000 employees in the U.S., America's second-largest employer faced criticism from workers, who complained the tech giant was not doing enough to safeguard their health. More than 19,000 Amazon employees have contracted the virus as of September.

Amazon is planning its own employee vaccination plan in conjunction with a healthcare provider, the company also told the White House.